The Duchess of Malfoy
by WearyWanderer
Summary: Lucius/Hermione pairing. Hermione Granger had grown up. No longer was she the gangly friend of Harry Potter's. Someone else has noticed Miss Granger as well. Please R and R. M Rating for later chapters.


The Duchess of Malfoy

Written by Taryn Elizabeth Love

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. They are all owned by J.K. Rowling.

Hermione Granger had grown up. No longer was she the gangly little friend of Potter's, but a young woman with grace, charm, and elegance. She'd lost a considerable amount of weight, but was pleasantly curved in all the right places. Her hair was no longer an untamed mass of frizzy curls, but now lay flat in a sleek, silky sheet on her shoulders. Hermione now worked for the Ministry of Magic in the International Muggle Relations department. With her job, she was required to participate in all matters of commerce between muggles and Wizarding world. Sometimes, fellow witches and wizards weren't even aware of what they were selling to muggles. That was where Hermione came in. People would deliver their items for sale and she would look each piece over and deem it worthy of sale in the muggle world. The job could be very tedious and it usually involved long hours delving into various spell books to disarm any charms placed on magical items that were sold in the muggle world.

It was because of her job that had led her to the Malfoy Manor. Ever since the Malfoys had been let off the hook for their part in the war, they'd retained their social status, but were rarely seen in public. Hermione had no idea what on earth they'd need her for. Certainly they knew about how dangerous some of those Dark Arts items could be. Hermione walked up the long drive that led to the front door. They'd left the wrought iron gate for her, so when she got up to the door, she was surprised to see that it had closed behind her. Grasping the heavy brass knocker, she rapped three times. After only a minute, a little female house elf answered the door with a squeaky greeting for her.

"Hello Miss. The Master asks that you wait in the parlor for him."

"All right … um …"

"Torty, Miss." She gave Hermione a little curtsy and smiled up at the witch. "Is there anything that Torty can get for you?"

"No, thank you. I think I'll just wait for Mr. Malfoy." Torty gave another curtsy and then bounced out of the foyer after showing Hermione the way to the parlor. It was after she sat down on a cozy couch that she noticed the apparel that the house elf wore. Gone was the dirty pillowcase that Dobby had worn, but a little pink dress that had been decorated with blue flowers. The house elf even had a little pink bow on the very top of her head. As the minutes began to crawl, Hermione noticed the rest of the parlor itself. It was set up in deep greens and silver. The couches like the one she was seated on was a very dark green, but the armchairs were silver. Typical Slytherin. There was lush silver carpeting and the sconces on the walls were green. Hermione rolled her eyes. This visit had better be quick.

…

Lucius Malfoy moved fluidly about his bedchambers. He dressed quickly in his long black wizard's robes and went down the stairwell. He had hoped that the Ministry representative would arrive a little later that day. He approached the witch who was engrossed in a book that she'd obviously brought with her. As soon as she met his gaze, he was taken aback. It was the Granger girl! Hermione rose quickly to her feet and extended her hand.

"Good to see you again, Mr. Malfoy. I trust that you are well." Lucius took the offered hand stiffly.

"Yes, I'm quite well." He had heard on the rumor mill that this woman had grown in both status and beauty, but he never would have believed if hadn't seen her for himself. Before, when she had been in school with Draco, she had been a rather plain girl who was more at home with a book than in her own skin. The woman before him now exuded confidence and even more importantly, pride in her accomplishments. It stirred something in him that he hadn't even known existed. "I know that you're very busy, Miss Granger, but I'd like you to look at some of my texts that I'd like to put up for sale at a muggle thrift store.

'_Muggle and thrift don't seem like they should be part of the Malfoy vocabulary,"_ Hermione thought, but she bit her tongue so as not to say those words aloud. She wanted to stay on good terms with Mr. Malfoy. Like always, the man was impeccable in his dark robes. He was still very foreboding and indifferent as usual, but there was something softer in his features than before. She wasn't even sure how to describe it. His long, platinum blonde hair hung loose on his shoulders and her fingers itched to touch the silky strands. Immediately, she dismissed those thoughts. What was going on in her head? This was Lucius Malfoy, for crying out loud.

"Why don't you show me what you have?" she asked, lifting her chin slightly. He nodded and motioned for her to follow him.

…

If the rest of the Malfoy Manor was impressive, it didn't seem nearly impressive enough, compared to the library. Books lined the walls from floor to ceiling. Hermione even saw ladders that connected to the shelves. They probably helped reach those horrible top shelves by the ceiling. As a woman with the classic phobia of heights, there was no way that even the most tantalizing of titles could get her on one of those. She shuddered. He led her to a cherry wood table in the middle of the room. On the smooth, polished surface were three piles of books. Lucius sat down and waited for Hermione to take her own chair. Brushing her hair off her shoulder, she did so with only a little reluctance. The texts on the table seemed to range from classic literature to certain spell books that the muggle world would find either fascinating or ridiculous. She picked up a copy of _Persuasion_ by Jane Austen. It was a good copy; the spine was intact and there was only a little fading on the cover from former use. But why was it in the Malfoy library? Lucius cleared his throat and she looked up at him.

"I trust that you know what you're looking for."

"Of course. I'm just surprised that you have so much you're willing to part with, I guess. A lot of this is practically harmless. I don't see why you'd need to have a Ministry representative at all," she declared.

"These are Narcissa's books. I'd just like to get rid of them," Lucius said. "I don't know what's been done to them magically."

"Oh." Hermione couldn't believe that she'd been that insensitive. It was public knowledge that his wife had left him after he'd been sent to Azkaban. Even after he'd been released, she had already moved in with a new beau and had drawn up divorce papers. "Forgive me, Mr. Malfoy. I'll just get started."

_'This was going to be a long day'_

A/N: What do you think? This is my first attempt at Lumione pairing. I got hooked after a friend introduced me to one on here and I had to try my hand at it. Let me know what you think. Should I keep going? Read and Review.


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